Meaghan Mountford created this recipe for her
blog, TheDecoratedCookie.com. These cookies
make a lovely Mother’s Day gift for the tea or
coffee drinker in your life.

Make dough according to your favorite sugar
cookie recipe, and chill. Roll out dough and cut out
circles. With a knife, cut out a slit about ;/8 inch
wide and about 1 inch long toward center of each
cookie. Bake according to recipe and let cool.

Bake cake according to package directions in
a 9 x 13-inch pan. Cool completely. Cut cake
into 4 pieces; crumble each piece into a large
bowl by breaking a section in half and rubbing
the two pieces together. Break up any large lumps.

Add three-quarters of the frosting. Mix into the
crumbled cake until thoroughly combined.
Basic Cake Balls

1 18.25-ounce box of cake mix

1 16-ounce container of canned frosting

BAKERELLA

decorating tips, fill with colored frosting and close
tightly with rubber bands. Use the size 4 tip for
the background color and size 2 tips for the
detail colors. (Note: Use the background color for
most of the frosting, about 1 cup or more, and
use only half of it to fill the frosting bag.)

To flood the background, pipe an outline
around the cookie, being sure to also
pipe around the slit. Let set about
15 minutes. Thin the reserved frosting
of the same color with water, a few
drops at a time, until it is the consistency
of very thick glue. With a small spoon or
squeeze bottle, pour some on the cookie
inside the outline. Let frosting flood to edges,
encouraging with the back of the spoon if
needed. Let set well, at least a couple of hours.
Pipe details with the rest of the colors. Let cookies dry overnight.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for several hours in
the refrigerator, or place in the freezer for about 15
minutes. You want the balls to be firm but not frozen.

Mold half of the shaped chilled cake balls using
a small flower-shaped cookie cutter and the other
half using a small butterfly-shaped cookie cutter.
Press the cake mixture into the cookie cutter until
it fills up the shape.

After shaping, put the cake balls in the freezer for
about 15 minutes to firm up again for dipping. Once
they are firm, transfer them to the refrigerator.

Melt the white candy coating in a microwave-safe plastic bowl, following the instructions on
the package. The coating should be about 3
inches deep for easier dipping. (I usually work
with about 16 ounces of coating at a time.)

Arrange tea or coffee and cookies in cupcake
liners and wrap in clear plastic bags. Give to
Mom with a mug. Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies.

When you are ready to dip, remove a few shaped
cake balls from the refrigerator at a time, keeping the rest chilled.

One at a time, dip about ½ inch of the tip of a
lollipop stick into the melted candy coating, and
insert the stick straight into the bottom of a
butterfly- or flower-shaped cake ball, pushing it
no more than halfway through. Dip the cake pop
into the melted coating, and gently tap off any
excess coating by holding the pop over the bowl,
tapping your wrist gently with your other hand
and rotating the lollipop stick.
Before the coating sets, attach 1 licorice pastel
to the front side of each butterfly and 1 yellow
gourmet mint to the front of each flower. Let dry
in the Styrofoam block.
For the flowers, use a toothpick to dot a small
amount of melted coating on the fronts of the
cake pops, so you can attach 1 confetti sprinkle
on each flower petal.

For the butterflies, use a toothpick to dot a small
amount of coating on the front of the cake pops
so you can attach jumbo heart sprinkles and confetti sprinkles on each butterfly wing. Then insert
2 color-stick sprinkles in matching colors in the
hardened coating on the top for antennae.

For an added detail, dot coating around the butterfly shape with a toothpick to define the wings.

Let dry completely in the Styrofoam block.

Tip
You can also use yellow M&M’s or similarly
shaped candy instead of gourmet mints for the
flowers. However, the mints have a rounder
surface, similar to that of the licorice pastels.